In 1719 B.C. in the Egyptian city of Thebes,
a forbidden love between the evil high priest Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namum,
the Pharoah's mistress is exposed. When Anck-Su-Namum takes her
own life, Imhotep's subsequent act of desperation in Hamunaptra,
the City of the Dead, defies the gods.

For his unholy acts, he is given the ultimate curse, his mummified
body will remain undead for all eternity, a torturous existence,
but one that will cease should his rotting corpse ever be released.
As Imhotep's screams of pain from within the sarcophagus grow
muffled while he is lowered into the earth, the curse is set in
motion, and his evil, vengeful heart lays beating in the dark,
growing stronger and stronger.

Universal Pictures presents an Alphaville Production of The
Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser (Blast From The Past).
A rousing, suspenseful and horrifying epic based on Universal
Pictures' classic 1932 film The Mummy, the film was written
and directed by Stephen Sommers (Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle
Book) and produced by James Jacks and Sean Daniel (Tombstone,
Michael) with Industrial Light & Magic producing the ground-breaking
visual effects.

When Alphaville founders James Jacks and Sean Daniel first learned
that Stephen Sommers was interested in writing and directing The
Mummy, they immediately arranged an informational meeting
and began discussing the project. They had never met Stephen before,
but had seen his widely-praised Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle
Book and were quite impressed.

"We thought Stephen had an interesting take on the subject,
more of a hell-bent-action-adventure movie with horror in it,
but very much a swashbuckler film like the old Errol Flynn films
(Captain Blood, Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk)," says
Jacks.

Sommers says, "I really wanted to do a big roaring romantic
adventure set in ancient Egypt, and The Mummy offered all
that and more"

The producers agreed, as they wanted to keep The Mummy
a period film -- a huge action-adventure film with a hint of romance.

"I set the main story in the 1920's because, to me, it's
the most romantic era," says Summers. "The tone, the
feel of the movie felt just felt like it belonged in that period."

"Our version of The Mummy is very romantic. If we
have a role model for the movie it is probably Raiders of the
Lost Ark or Gungha Din." Jacks adds. "While the
producers knew it would be presumptuous to say the movie would
be as good as those classic films, they certainly intended to
aim for a similar tone."

According to Daniel, "We wanted it to be fun...an adventure
film with a lot of humor, but not a comedy. Our aim is to be scary,
not gory...funny, not campy. We wanted to show that we have a
great affection for the original movies."

The producers strove to create a movie that people of all ages
would want to see, and knew that the concept of the movie they
envisioned would require careful positioning, as the producers
did not want the film to be an out-and-out horror film.